Florida lawmakers urge deficit panel not to cut Everglades money

Calling it an "important job-creating program," a bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers wrote a letter to the so-called "supercommittee" that's looking at federal budget cuts. The Floridians asked them to give careful consideration to the state-federal Everglades restoration partnership -- even in the face of "immense challenges" and competing prioirites.

The Florida lawmakers promised the restoration project would create 22,966 short-to-midterm jobs, the lawmakers wrote. Over the next 50 years, they said, it could create as many as 442,644 jobs, according to one economic estimate.